[ Index for this Doctor ]
[ Index for this story  ]

DOCTOR WHO
THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS

Written by
As Robin Bland, Terrance Dicks (rewrite: Robert Holmes)

Part Four

(Overlap from the creature sitting up)

[INT. Solon's lab]

SARAH: I can see. I can see again!
(She turns and screams. She tears through the room in an attempt to get away from the creature. A lit Bunsen burner is knocked over, which causes a blaze within a kidney bowl. Morbius's claw touches the fire, which passes to his body. His body on fire, he too starts screaming, in the same voice as before. Waving his burning claw about, he knocks the table over, which spreads the fire. SARAH takes this opportunity to run upstairs.)

[INT. Solon's parlour]

(SARAH runs in.)
SARAH: You'd better do something. (pointing) That monster of yours is on the loose.
SOLON: Oh, no, not yet. It's too soon. I've got to stop him. (He leaves.)
(SOLON runs out. SARAH starts away but sees the DOCTOR on the floor.)
SARAH: Doctor?
DOCTOR: (opening his eyes) Hello, Sarah. Nice to be seen again.
SARAH: Ah, Doctor.
DOCTOR: You thought I was dead, didn't you?
SARAH: Mmm.
DOCTOR: You're always making that mistake. Come on - we've got to find Morbius's brain. Solon has to be stopped.
SARAH: Doctor, you're too late.
DOCTOR: (grabbing the hair on the top of his head) I can't be.

[INT. Solon's lab]

(Smoke is coming from the claw as the creature continues to lay waste to the laboratory. He rips away the curtain and sees himself in a mirror. He stares for a moment, then smashes it. SOLON enters.)
SOLON: Morbius! (the creature turns) Stop it! This is Solon, Solon your creator. Can you hear me? Now listen. Your brain may be damaged. Broca's area. The speech centre isn't functioning properly. Look, don't you recognise me? I made you.
(The creature doesn't seem to care. It crushes him between its arms and then exits the lab.)

[INT. Solon's parlour]

DOCTOR: A glass braincase?
SARAH: Yes. Or plastic. I don't know. Anyway, you can actually see that brain inside it, like a goldfish bowl.
DOCTOR: Can you read his thoughts?
SARAH: No. Look, I'm serious, Doctor. It's horrible.
DOCTOR: And crude. It could lead to a brain malfunction, and that spells danger.
(The creature steps in.)
DOCTOR: Keep calm, Sarah. Keep calm. Whatever you do keep-. You are calm. Hello, Morbius. You remember me?
(The DOCTOR's attempt to shake Condo's hand earns him a claw strike or two to the head. He falls.)
SARAH: (as the creature advances on her) Doctor! Doctor! Doctor, please get up. Please!
SARAH: No!
(She is backed against the short flight of stairs and falls backward.)

[INT. Corridor]

(CONDO hears the commotion.)
SARAH [OC]: Get up, Doctor, please. Please! Agh!
(He staggers forward.)

[INT. Solon's parlour]

SARAH: (backed toward the basement door) Doctor, please! Please, Doctor, I need your help! [indistinct]
(CONDO runs in and transposes himself between her and the creature. He shuts the door. We see SARAH tumble down the steps to the basement lab.)
CONDO: You not kill girl.
(The two fight. The creature is thrown to the ground but rises. CONDO's knife is almost a match for the claw.)
CONDO: Condo kill you.
(The creature makes CONDO release the knife. The claw does its work on CONDO's throat, and he lies still after struggling. The monster walks out.
This has given the DOCTOR time to come to. He pulls himself to his feet, looks around, and opens the door to the basement.
In the upper lab, SOLON feels his ribs. He rummages for a hypodermic needle from a kit in a drawer.)

[INT. Basement lab]

(The DOCTOR carries SARAH from the foot of the stairs.)
SARAH: Where are we going? Where are we going?
DOCTOR: (placing her on the bench) Are you all right?
SARAH: What happened? Where is he?
DOCTOR: Gone for a lurch, I think. He killed Condo. Shhh. You stay there.
SARAH: Yes.
DOCTOR: I'll be back soon.

[INT. Solon's parlour]

(SOLON inserts the needle in a dart gun. He descends the stairs and notices that the Doctor's body isn't on the floor anymore.)
DOCTOR: Not your night, is it, Solon?
SOLON: I thought you were dead. Morbius has got to be stopped.
DOCTOR: He should never have been started.
SOLON: His brain is only functioning on the motor level. I hadn't finished the operation, and you've got to help me. If I don't find him soon, then the consequences could be incalculable.
DOCTOR: Really?
SOLON: Yes. His hated for the Sisterhood is his deepest emotion at the instinctual level at which his mind's now working.
DOCTOR: (heading for the door) Aw, come on.

[EXT. Rocks]

(The creature walks among the rocks, making odd noises. It places its claw around the neck of a SISTER.)
KELIA: No!
(The DOCTOR and SOLON see her body laid out on a slab. The DOCTOR checks her wrist and neck for a pulse.)
SOLON: Dead?
DOCTOR: Yes. Is that a stun gun?
SOLON: Yes.
DOCTOR: He can't have gone far. You go that way. We'll try and cut him off across these rocks.
(The DOCTOR finds the Morbius creature, which backs him against the rocks and gets its claw round his neck. Drawn by the creature's screeches, SOLON arrives and fires the dart gun. Needle in its back, the creature slumps and goes still. SOLON runs over and checks it over briefly.)
SOLON: There's no damage as far as I can see.
DOCTOR: No damage?
SOLON: There might be a slight contusion of the corpus callosum. I don't know until I get it back.
DOCTOR: Solon, this thing you've made is an unspeakable abomination. It's just throttled the life out of someone.
SOLON: Simple animal instinct, Doctor. Morbius wouldn't want to aggravate the Sisterhood at this stage. Lift him up with me.
DOCTOR: What?
SOLON: We've got to get him back before the anaesthetic wears off.
DOCTOR: All right, Solon. But when we get him back, he's not going out again, not ever.
(The DOCTOR lifts the creature over his shoulder.)
SOLON: What do you mean?
DOCTOR: I mean this operation can end where it began, on the operating table. The brain can be detached and returned to the Time Lords.
(SOLON looks unimpressed by this idea.)

[INT. Shrine]

(The dead SISTER is carried in.)
MAREN: Who is responsible? Who killed Kelia, our sister?
OHICA: She was found near Solon's habitation, High One.
MAREN: Solon?
OHICA: The Sister who found her saw a creature high among the rocks.
MAREN: What creature?
OHICA: She only saw it briefly, but then later she saw the Doctor and Solon hunting for it.
MAREN: So, Solon has succeeded in his vile experiments.
OHICA: And if the Doctor is right, High One, he will have given it the brain of our ancient enemy, Morbius.

[INT. Solon's lab]

DOCTOR: Five minutes, Solon. You've got five minutes.
SOLON: Doctor, I've spent my lifetime-
DOCTOR: You've spent your whole life resurrecting evil. Now, either you disconnect the brain or I'll do it my way.
(He holds out his wire-cutters.)
SOLON: Oh, no. I'll do it.
DOCTOR: Five minutes, Solon. I'll be back to count the pieces.

[INT. Basement lab]

(SARAH is asleep on the work bench.)
DOCTOR: Oi, oi, I've done it. Come on.
(SARAH gives a startled yelp as she wakes.)
SARAH: Oh, I just had the most terrible dream.
DOCTOR: What?
SARAH: First of all, I was blinded. Then I was attacked by a great claw thing looked like it was made from butcher's leftovers. And then I was knocked down-
DOCTOR: Knocked down a flight of stairs.
SARAH: How did you know?
DOCTOR: I was there.
SARAH: You were? What happened to, um, Mister Allsorts?
DOCTOR: Solon's dismantling him.
SARAH: That's a switch.
DOCTOR: Force majeure.
(We see that SOLON is actually locking the pair of them in.)
DOCTOR: We're lucky he botched the operation. The brain of Morbius and that body makes a terrifying combination. For the sake of the future of the universe, I had to make him destroy his handiwork.
SARAH: Was he really that dangerous?
DOCTOR: Who, Morbius?
SARAH: Uh-huh.
DOCTOR: There was a civilisation here once. Now look at it. And there are other planets like it, all destroyed by Morbius. Nothing but ashes.
(He finds that the door is locked.)
DOCTOR: Damn! I should have stayed with him.
SARAH: (with a smile) Sonic screwdriver.
DOCTOR: It's in the TARDIS.
SARAH: Oh.

[INT. Solon's lab]

(SOLON has the braincase open at the seam. He is adjusting the connections to the body.)
SOLON: This time, Morbius, there'll be no mistakes.

[INT. Shrine]

OHICA: Is it right that we should let the Doctor fight our battles for us?
MAREN: What are you saying?
OHICA: Morbius is our enemy also.
MAREN: There is no proof, no proof, Ohica, that the brain of Morbius still survives. That was simply the Doctor's theory.
OHICA: One that makes meaning of Solon's meaningless work. And Solon himself is evil. The blood of our sister Kelia stains his hands.
MAREN: Away from the flame, our powers fade. Even if the Doctor is right, there is little we can do to help.
OHICA: We should do the little we can. If the Doctor faces both Solon and Morbius, then-
MAREN: Ohica, I am too old. Too old and weak to leave the shrine. I could not lead you.
OHICA: Then let me, High One. Give the order, and let me lead the Sisterhood.

[INT. Basement]

SARAH: There must be something we can do. It's not like you to give up. I mean, Solon has got to be stopped, hasn't he?
DOCTOR: There's a thousand tons of reinforced concrete between us and Solon's laboratory. I know these places. Hydrogen plants are all built to the same basic design, the Scott-Bailey principle. I've got an idea.
SARAH: I knew you would.
DOCTOR: Solon must've kept the brain alive in a colloidal nutrient. Hydrogen cyanide, Sarah. Hydrogen cyanide.
SARAH: Hydrogen cyanide.
DOCTOR: (he begins scouring the room for some) HCN.
SARAH: What?
DOCTOR: HCN.
SARAH: Ah-ha! HCN.
(She holds up a small bottle.)
DOCTOR: Prussic acid. Good girl.
SARAH: So what do we do now, drink ourselves to death? Hmm? What are you looking for? If you tell me, I can help you. Is it big? Is it small? What is it?
(Behind a side table is a ventilation opening.)
DOCTOR: I knew there'd be one.
(He pulls the grating away.)
SARAH: Oh, come on. We're not going to get out through there.
DOCTOR: That isn't the idea. That duct should lead to Solon's laboratory.
SARAH: Are you suggesting I crawl-
DOCTOR: No, I'm not.
SARAH: Then what?
DOCTOR: We've got all we need to make cyanogen.
(The DOCTOR starts pouring two liquids into a kidney bowl.)
DOCTOR: Cyanogen. Just a drop, two, three.
(He puts the bowl into the duct.)
DOCTOR: Stand back, Sarah. I mean well back.
SARAH: Okay.
DOCTOR: If we can create the right combustion conditions
(He adds the acid. A gas begins to form, and then backs away.)
DOCTOR: Something should happen.
(We see the fumes start to arrive upstairs through a vent as SOLON closes the braincase.)
SARAH: How do we tell if it's worked?
DOCTOR: Well, if we're still here in a month...
SARAH: It hasn't worked.
DOCTOR: Correct.
SARAH: Hmm. How many hours in a month? (She crosses her arms.)
DOCTOR: Hmm?

[INT. Solon's lab]

SOLON: (removing his gloves) I've done it. Morbius, I've done it. (coughs) You will live. You will- (cough) You will live again.
(He works out that something isn't right, clutches his throat, and falls on top of his creation, which promptly sits up. SOLON falls to the floor.)
MORBIUS: Cyanide. (he looks toward the vent) Ah.

[INT. Basement lab]

(After seeing OHICA leading torch-bearing SISTERS through the rocks, we return to where we left SARAH and the DOCTOR.)
SARAH: How many seconds in a month?
DOCTOR: Two million six hundred and seventy-eight thousand four hundred.
SARAH: (in response to the noise behind them) Short month. Ah.
MORBIUS: An ingenious idea, Doctor, but ineffectual. Your poison affected only Solon. I have the lungs of a birastropthe.
DOCTOR: With a methane filter. What does it feel like to be the biggest mongrel in the universe?
MORBIUS: Solon designed this body for efficiency, not for its appearance. To be free again is all that matters.
DOCTOR: Free to cause more havoc, more destruction?
MORBIUS: The Time Lords will not oppose me again, nor the Sisterhood. When it is learnt that I, Morbius, have returned from the grave, my followers will rise in their millions.
DOCTOR: You really can't go on calling yourself Morbius. There's very little of Morbius left. Why don't you think of another name? 'Potpourri' would be appropriate.
SARAH: How about 'Chop Suey'?
MORBIUS: (lashing out and causing SARAH to beat a hasty retreat) What?!
DOCTOR: Chop Suey, the galactic emperor.
MORBIUS: You will be the first to die.
DOCTOR: Brain getting a little overheated, is it? Careful - not as strong as it was.
MORBIUS: My brain functions perfectly.
DOCTOR: I doubt it, Morbius. All that time in a tank, it's gone soft. Do you dare put it to the test?
MORBIUS: What test?
DOCTOR: We have all the apparatus here. I challenge you to a mind-bending contest.
MORBIUS: I am a Time Lord of the first rank. What are you?
DOCTOR: Oh, nothing, nothing, a mere nobody, but I don't think you're in the first rank anymore.
MORBIUS: Very well, Doctor. If that is how you want to die, I accept your challenge.
DOCTOR: There's a sporting gentleman.
SARAH: What's mind-bending?
DOCTOR: Time Lord wrestling. It's usually a game, but it can end in death lock.
MORBIUS: It will, Doctor. I, Morbius, do not play games.
DOCTOR: Neither do I. Are you ready?
(Each places his forehead against an armature on one end of a metal frame. At the centre is a circle.)
DOCTOR: En garde, Morbius.
(We hear the DOCTOR flip a switch, and MORBIUS grunts. In the circle appear faces - the figure depicted by the bust, then the Doctor, stepping back through previous regenerations.)
MORBIUS: Is your mind, Doctor, going?
SARAH: Doctor.
MORBIUS: How far, Doctor? How long have you lived?
(After the first two Doctors, we see other faces.)
MORBIUS: Your puny mind is powerless against the strength of Morbius.
(And other faces.)
MORBIUS: Back. To. The. Beginning!
(There is a flash within the braincase, which fills with smoke. They both step back. MORBIUS lurches off, and the DOCTOR falls sideways, stiff as a board.)
SARAH: Doctor?
(SARAH waves smelling salts under the DOCTOR's nose.
The SISTERS have reached the parlour. MORBIUS enters, and they use their torches to drive him outside. OHICA heads for the basement, where SARAH quietly sits, holding the DOCTOR's head.)
OHICA: What has happened?
SARAH: I think he's dying.
(We see MORBIUS high on the rocks outside as an electrical storm once more rages. The SISTERS drive him up the rest of the way as he makes incoherent sounds. He is driven over a high cliff and screeches on his way back to earth.)

[INT. Shrine]

MAREN: The Time Lord dies. Only the Elixir of Life can save him.
OHICA: And we have none.
(MAREN opens the panel behind which the flame burns brightly.)
SISTERS: Sacred Flame. Sacred fire. Sacred Flame. Sacred fire.
MAREN: (picking up the goblet) Enough has formed, Ohica. Enough for the Doctor.
OHICA: But High One, your own need.
MAREN: Here, take it. Perhaps the Doctor was right. There should be an end.
(She turns toward the flame as OHICA pours the liquid into the DOCTOR's mouth. He sits up quickly, then falls back again.)
DOCTOR: Nectar? Stewed apricots. No custard. (he sits up, turns, and points) Ah!
OHICA: Maren!
(MAREN is seen in the Flame, sitting.)
OHICA: She has sacrificed herself.
(The SISTERS all lower their hands to the ground.)
DOCTOR: Was that the last?
(In the flame, we see MAREN as a much younger woman. She then disappears.)
SARAH: Without it, you would have died.
OHICA: It was ordained.
DOCTOR: And Morbius?
OHICA: He is destroyed. We owe you thanks, Doctor, but-
DOCTOR: Oh please, Ohica, please, no speeches of gratitude. Sarah and I have an engagement.
SARAH: We have?
DOCTOR: Come along.
SARAH: Thank you, Ohica.
(The DOCTOR hands SARAH the key, and she unlocks the TARDIS door.)
DOCTOR: Goodbye, Sisters. (SARAH enters the ship) Oh, in case you have trouble with the chimney again...
(He hands her two more of the mini-pyrotechnics.)
OHICA: What are they?
DOCTOR: A Mighty Atom and a Thunder Flash.
(He enters the TARDIS.)
OHICA: There is some ancient writing here, Doctor. Is it a Time Lord spell? What does it say?
DOCTOR [OC]: Light the blue touch paper, and stand clear.
(The TARDIS dematerialises with a flash-bang effect.)

The above notes, transcription, etc. by Anna Shefl

[ Previous ] [ Next ]

-=#=-
Anna's home  >  The Doctors' home  >  This Doctor  >  This story 
-=#=-